Thursday, July 16, 2015

I thought that doing another marathon would go great since the last one 3 weeks earlier went amazing. Since I found this awesome one in Iowa, only 1.5 hours from my house I scheduled it. This was my 4th marathon in my 4th state. Someday I would like to complete a marathon in each state! What a great way to tour the United States. I want to stay healthy until I'm 100 and run races all the way until I'm dead. So that being said expect to see a lot more race posts.

It ended up being a great day for weather. No rain and considering that it had rained almost every stinking day in the last 2 weeks, this no rain thing was quite nice. The morning was cooler for June and that made the first 16 miles great. However, within 3 hours of the marathon it heated up kinda bad and since I'm a slower runner, I got a little warm and didn't finish under 5 hours, but it was close and the best thing is I felt great at the finish line, ready to run more. I know that in the future when I finally get a marathon day that has cold weather I'm going to get a really great finishing time. My goal is 4 hours 30 minutes.

Here are pictures that tell about the marathon.

I walked downstairs in my hotel and saw the man pictured to the right. I saw his shirt said 50 States marathon club and I was curious about that. He started talking to me all about the Club and how many marathons he has done. His name is George and he is from Southgate, Georgia. He is 68 years young and has done 246 marathons!! Then he said, "Well that's nothing compared to Frank. Frank then shows up and we all took a picture together. He is from Rochester, MN. He is 67 years young and has done 673 marathons. Now that is impressive. I had the motivation that if they could do that many marathons at their age, sometimes 2 marathons a week or more, that I could do my 4th marathon 3 weeks after my 3rd marathon. I was going to be just fine.

My race bib! I was so happy about the #. WHY? Because I have this thing about the #13 and this race bib added up to that. Plus the #6 could be for my 6 children. #4 could be for this being my 4th marathon. #43 because I'm turning 43 this year. Overall a great bib #

This was Lori Lucas. I met her the night before. She was on her 10th marathon. We shared a hotel room. I met her on the Marathon Maniacs facebook page. What a great way to meet other runners.

The bagpipe player at the beginning of the race. He looked awesome and played well too.

The trail. This is what it looks like most of the time. There are small portions that are paved, but most of it is just like this. Completely beautiful.

This is the jeep that led the race.

One of the great views from the trail.

Another amazing view.

Starting out. I think we were at at half mile by this point.

At the end with my finishing medal.

Me, Lou and Lori. I met Lou while running around mile 2. We ran together about 10 or so miles and he was on his 17th marathon. And Lori is the girl I met on Facebook, this was her 10th marathon.

My Garmin results!

A close up of the race shirt and the medal.

Great things about this race:
Chip timed and accurate
flat course all the way except two little baby hills that are really tiny and short, nothing bad.
70% shaded course
LOTS of volunteers and course support
Bib for your scrapbook
Finishing medal that is nice
Raises money for the Troops!
Race Director communicates with you the same day you ask a question about the race.
Shirt that is really awesome and fit true to size.
4 wheelers drive up and down the course throughout the marathon to bring you more water, medical supplies if needed and Gatorade.
Food at the end.
Point to point course, so you can say you ran to another city.
Shuttles back to the start where your car is.
Printed out results for your scrapbook

Things that could be improved for this race:
Cooler weather. Ha, like that can be controlled. WELL DONE marathon by all who organized it.